Nagô Grandma and White Papa: Candomblé and the Creation of Afro-Brazilian Identity (Latin America in Translation/en Traducción/em Tradução) - Softcover

Dantas, Beatriz Góis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807859753 ISBN 13: 9780807859759

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, 2009

Synopsis

Nago Grandma and White Papa is a signal work in Brazilian anthropology and African diaspora studies originally published in Brazil in 1988. This edition makes Beatriz Gois Dantas's historioethnographic study available to an English-speaking audience for the first time.

Dantas compares the formation of Yoruba (Nago) religious traditions and ethnic identities in the Brazilian states of Sergipe and Bahia, revealing how they diverged from each other due to their different social and political contexts and needs. By tracking how markers of supposedly "pure" ethnic identity and religious practice differed radically from one place to another, Dantas shows the social construction of identity within a network of class-related demands and alliances. She demonstrates how the shape and meaning of "purity" have been affected by prolonged and complex social and cultural mixing, compromise, and struggle over time. Ethnic identity, as well as social identity in general, is formed in the crucible of political relations between social groups that purposefully mobilize and manipulate cultural markers to define their respective boundaries--a process, Dantas argues, that must be applied to understanding the experience of African-descended people in Brazil.

About this title

Book Description:

"A recognized classic in the literature on African Brazilian religions, Nago Grandma and White Papa is an important case study of social identity formation as a relational process involving the 'political' mobilization of cultural markers to define group differences. Dantas's book remains surprisingly relevant to current theoretical debates on these questions as well as to the area of African diaspora studies."--Robert Slenes, Universidad Estadual de Campinas, Brazil

From the Inside Flap:

In this signal work in Brazilian anthropology and African diaspora studies, Dantas compares the formation of religious traditions and ethnic identities in the Brazilian states of Sergipe and Bahia, revealing how they diverged from each other due to their different social and political contexts and needs. This volume makes the book, originally published in Brazil, available in English for the first time.

About this edition

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0807859753
• ISBN 13: 9780807859759
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208